Game board



Dec. 27, 1949 w. T.ISCHWARTZ GAME BOARD Filed July 19, 1945 w vw w m 4. m .m W a m R! Red.

Patented Dec. 27,1949

U N 1 TE D STATES CE 2,492,447 GAME BOARD William T. Schwartz, Philadelphia, Pa. Application July 19, 1945, s riai'fio; 665,910

The object of my invention is to provide a game,

'2 Claims. (crave -em having some characteristics of soccer, playable by two opposing teams, each of two, three or four players, involving driving 'a ball over 'a table toward goals at opposite ends thereof, the two teams endeavoring to drive the ball to the goals at opposite ends of the table, each team at the same time defending the goal which the opposing team seeks to reach. Playing the game requires the use of a gameboard having certain novel structural characteristics and it is such a gam'ebo'ard that embodies my invention. It is illustrated, in a preferred embodiment, in the enclosed drawings, in which Fig. l is a plan view of the gameboard.

Fig. 2- is a side view of the 'g'ameboard partly in section.

Fig. 3 is a cross-section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a detail vertical section through the corner formed by an e'nd wall and the adjacent floor; and Fig. 5 is a detail horizontal section through the center of an end wall; both views showing how the goal defense device is pivotally mounted.

The floor a of the gameboard is enclosed by side walls I), b and end walls 0, c. The floor a is nearly but not precisely level, having a slight downward slope from the end walls toward the center and also a slight downward slope from the side Walls toward the center, thereby providing a slightly concave playing field, so that the tendency of a free-rolling ball 0 is to roll toward the center of the board. Any suitable supporting devices a are adapted to support the gameboard on a fiat table.

In each side wall 12 are a series (five in number) of horizontally extending and horizontally aligning slots located slightly above the level of the floor. The central slot d and the end slots e, e are comparatively short, while the slots 7, are comparatively long. The purpose of this arrangement of slots is hereinafter explained.

Adjacent each end wall, and midway between the two side walls, is a pocket the rear wall of which is formed by a section of the end wall and which is closed at the sides and top and open at the front. These pockets I term goals, one of them being lettered g and the other h. Swingable on a vertical pivot about in line with the end wall and midway between the side Walls of each goal pocket is a lever z. The lever'is pivoted between its ends. The end of the lever in front of the pivot carries a disc k, which may be of any shape and may vary nsize, although its diameter should be a minor fraction of thewidth (measured transversely of the board) or the pocket. The rear end or the lever extends been of the end wall to an extent thatpeiinits it to be grasped by the hand and st? ng back and forth. Stops in, limit the swinging movement of the lever.

Between each goal pocket and opposite side walls 1) the 'fioor' of theg'an'ieboaid is banked, as shown iii Fig. 4, to slope downward from the end wall an a sfii'ewhat steeper grade than the previously described slight'slope of the main area of the gamesdaratoward the center. 4 7

Fdrminga necessary part of the gameboard, although separate therefrom, are thin sticks s, which are insertable through the slots d, e, 1. These sticks are of sufficient length to extend laterally across the gameboard and project outside the side walls a sufficient distance to enable them to grasped by the hands of the players and moved horizontally back and forth.

The game may be played by four, six or eight playerstwo, three or four on each team. One team seeks to lodge the ball, by means of a stick or sticks s, into one goal pocket h, while the other team seeks to lodge the ball into the other goal pocket 9. Defensively, each team seeks to guard its own goal by swinging the lever i into such position that the disc is will be brought into the line of travel of any ball directed toward the goal pocket.

If the game is played by four players, one player, whom we shall call A, standing beyond one side of the board, inserts a stick 8 through the central slot d in the near side wall and, by a horizontal swinging movement of his stick, seeks to propel the ball toward one of the goal pocketssay, pocket g. One of his opponents, whom we shall call C, standing beyond the other side of the board, inserts a stick through the central slot in the other side wall and, by a similar manipulation of the stick, seeks to drive the ball into the other goal pocket h. The other opponent of A, whom we shall call D, by manipulating the lever i at the goal pocket 9, seeks to bring the disc k: into line with the ball when it is driven directly toward the pocket and thereby block the entrance of the ball thereinto. The partner of A, whom we shall call B, in a similar manner seeks to block the entrance of the ball when it is driven directly toward the goal pocket h.

If the game is played by three piayers on each side, two act on the offensive and one on the 3 I defensive. The two players on the offense insert their sticks s through the two long slots in one side wall, while the third player defends a goal as above described.

If the game is played by four players on each side, three act on the ofiensive, inserting their sticks s through the short slots (1, e, e, while the fourth player defends a goal as above described.

The gameboard is described as including some specific features that are not essential to an embodiment of the invention in its broader aspect and to which the invention is not limited except as far as the same may be definitely included in the claims.

What I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. A gameboard comprising a floor, side walls and end walls, each side wall having a series of horizontally extending and horizontally aligning elongated slots, the slots in each side wall being immediately opposite, and of the same lengths as, corresponding slots in the other side wall, ball-driving, hand-manipulatable sticks insertable through said slots and which are freely movable back and forth in said slots, slidable transversely of the floor and swingable in the arc of a circle over said floor, a goal pocket extending inward from each end wall, a section of which forms the rear wall of the pocket, each goal pocket having side walls and being open at the front, a handmanipulatable lever swingably mounted between its ends on a vertical pivot positioned midway between the side walls of the pocket and one arm of which extends from said pivot forwardly into the pocket, and a ball-blocking device of a width substantially smaller than the width of the pocket,

carried by the lever at its front end and located at approximately the open front end of the pocket, the floor, on each side of the goal pockets, sloping downward in the direction of the longitudinal extension of the board for a relatively short distance and thence continuing its downward slope at a smaller angle to the horizontal toward the transverse center of the floor, the floor also having a slight downward inclination from the side walls, toward the longitudinal center of the floor.

2. A gameboard as defined in claim 1 in which the slots in each side wall number five, the central slot and the end slots being relatively short and the other two slots being relatively long.

WILLIAM T. SCHWARTZ.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 935,585 Campbell Sept. 28, 1909 1,579,172 Weaver Mar. 30, 1926 1,634,016 Brown June 28, 1927 1,934,381 Slosson Nov. 7, 1933 2,230,743 Davis Feb. 4, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 336,188 Great Britain Oct. 9, 1930 523,882 Great Britain July 24, 1940 636,377 France Jan. 11, 1928 688,545 Germany Feb. 23, 1940 795,253 France Jan. 2, 1936 

